Difference between burning fat and burning calories?

D

DanHarris

0
So as far as i understand,

To burn fat you must exercise at atleast 60% of your projected maximum heart rate, which at my age (19) means work over 131 heart rate.

To burn calories you must simply just exercise. And obviously all actions you perform burn some calories.


My aim is to burn fat, but i was just checking if i understand the difference correctly between the two and what needs to be done?


Also my last question: Is the amount of fat being burnt directly related to your heart rate. I.E Will working at a heart rate of 165 burn more fat than working at a heart rate of 135? I'm assuming the higher the heart rate, the more fat is burnt?
 
Your body cannot "burn fat". What fat loss is about is creating a calorie deficit that induces your body to utilize the calories it has stored as fat without going into starvation mode. Fat loss is optimized using a multifaceted approach. Consuming a balanced healthy diet, increasing muscle mass and metabolic rate through resistance exercise and aerobic exercise.
 
Any tips on good cardio to burn fat?

I like the Bike but it seems to be one of the least calorie burning exercises. I also like the rowing machine, which seems to burn a decent amount of calories compared to the bike.

What confused me is that at the gym on the bikes and treadmills etc it says:

65% of max heart rate - Fat Burning Zone
80% of max heart rate - Cardio Training Zone

I really don't like using treadmills because i am not comfortable on them atall, just not the type of machine i like to use. What else are the best cardio exercises to do.

At the minute on my cardio days i just seem to do one hour on the bike at a heart rate of 145-160 average. And also ten minutes on the rowing machine. I don't think this will be enough to lower my BF%.

What is recommended?
 
the 60% fat burning zone is rubbish i think...the harded u can go the better such as sprints to increase growth hormaone and testosterone levels which burn way more cals / fat...start at 5 for a distance you can hold top speed for and increase by 1 reach week til 10 than increase distance...do only 1 weel though
 
HIIT is the way to go for fat burning. I do this on my elliptical at home, but you can so it on a bike, elliptical, or just road jogging. Basically, what you do is sprint as fast as you can for 45 seconds, then jog for 75 seconds. This is 1 interval. repeat 10 times, and youve juts got yourself an intense fat burning exercise in 20 minutes. i suggest a 3-5 minute warmup and cooldown.

Also youll wanna mix up your cardio. After a while, not only will you get bored with the same exrcise, your body will eventually grow accustomed to it making it harder to lose the fat. Always be throwing your body curve balls.
 
I'm going tomorrow to do my cardio, did a fully body WT today. I'll try HIIT tomorrow. I'm going to do a 30 minute HIIT on the bike, then do 30 minutes normal exercise on the rowing machine before going to work :)

Is it better to do HIIT for 30 minutes, or just go at it on the bike flat out for half an hour? Does the speeding up and slowing down help to burn fat?

Also last question is when doing HIIT should i am to go at the same speed (rpm) for the whole thing and just increase and decrease resitance for the intervals?

Dan
 
if you are doing HIIT you dont need to do the 30 minutes on the rowing machine. If you are doing HIIT right, you wont be ABLE to do another 30 minutes. If you can, you werent going your fullest on the sprint part of the interval.

HIIT is more effective in burning fat because it basically throws your body for a loop. With regular low intensity cardio, your body will eventually learn exactly how slow it needs to burn the fat to produce just enough energy for you to complete your exercise at your current pace. When you do HIIT your body goes "oh crap, hes gonna need a lot more energy" and breaks down more fat than necessary. The process is repeated and, your body effectively burns more fat than just regular constant cardio.

as far as the sprint portion of HIIT, I dont change my resistance at all, just basically go as fast as you can, id say about 95% of your max possible speed.

If youve never done HIIT before, trust me, after 10 intervals of that, youll be begging to get off the bike.

And doing the 30 minutes of row machine after may start to break down lean mass (muscle). The purpose of weight training is to counteract this effect, but theres only so much you can do to prevent it. Dont be fooled into thinking more is better when it comes to cardio. a 20 minute HIIT session is much more effective IMO than a 1 hour low intensity cardio session.
 
So i will just stick to the HIIT on the bike for 20-30 minute sessions at a time for my cardio for now then. To be honest i was always fooled into thinking more is better with cardio, as long as effort goes into it.

Should i pay any attention to the "total cals burned" readout on the bike or is it just a load of crap?

For effective HIIT on the bike i should do 95% of my max speed on the sprint part, and on the "rest" part how much should i slow it down by? Half the speed? Three quarters the speed?

Also in your opinion is 30 minutes of cardio on each cardio day really enough? As long as i do HIIT and do it properly?
 
i hate biking on stationary lol
can never beat the real thing. bmx baby! hahahha

treadmill HIIT rules. my favorite!
 
Are you sure you can't pretend to like running? because you can always just do a jog in the morning, go to a vacant oval and just do half a lap sprints half a lap slow,
I got up 3 mornings a week and went running, (not long) i had no healthy diet and didnt go to the gym, but i still ended up loosing at least 30 pounds of fat, easily if not more. now when im bulking i just do a 20 min HIIT around the neighbourhood, sometimes sprinting, then slower, then up a hill, mixing it around.
i do that maybe twice a week when im bulking, and it just means i don't put to many love handles on while your bulking.
eliptical trainers are also pretty good if you don't want to go outside.. they are good for HIIT training aswell. (you get puffed quick)
 
I don't mind running outside, but on a treadmill its just really uncomfortable. I like running outside though. Theres just nowhere to run around here though.

Is a bike good enough or does it not burn anywhere near enough calories?
 
well, everything ive read has pointed to running being the no.1 in fat loss excercises, and chews up calories like you dont know.
Even if you run around the block 3 times its still worth it. I reckon at least.
and if you want to see results quick, you could always get up early before breakfast and just go for a run, it chews up stored calories, (fat)
but coz u can't run to much due to joint problems eventually, mixing your cardio methods are good. each cardio machine has its pros and cons, so doing a bit of everything helps get the best out of them all. (cross training)
 
Yeah i hear running is one of the best ways to burn those calories. If you do 30 mins on a bike at level 10 @ 130-150 rpm then you only burn approx 130 calories, thats just as an example. Where as if you do 10 minutes rowing (with pauses) you can easily burn 90 calories. 3 x 90 = 270. A fair amount more than the bike wouldn't you say lol.

But then again they are the readings off the machines, and therefore and probably totally wrong because doesn't it depend on a lot of factors, everybody would burn a different amount of calories during the same exercise?
 
DanHarris said:
So i will just stick to the HIIT on the bike for 20-30 minute sessions at a time for my cardio for now then. To be honest i was always fooled into thinking more is better with cardio, as long as effort goes into it.

Should i pay any attention to the "total cals burned" readout on the bike or is it just a load of crap?

For effective HIIT on the bike i should do 95% of my max speed on the sprint part, and on the "rest" part how much should i slow it down by? Half the speed? Three quarters the speed?

Also in your opinion is 30 minutes of cardio on each cardio day really enough? As long as i do HIIT and do it properly?
Click to expand...

The calories burned on those displays are basically a very inaccurate estimate. There are many factors involved in calculating that that the bike just cant know about you. Heartrate monitors are good, because they give you a good idea of how effective the workout is.

the rest part of the interval i usually do around what be equivilent to a casual jog (i do mine on an elliptical so its easier for me to judge that then on a bike) i would say around 50% of your max speed. Whatever keeps your heartrate to an increased level .

i do cardio 5 days a week. since ive been doing HIIT i havent gone over 30 minutes and its the most effective form of cardio ive done thus far. 20-30 minutes is perfect. with your diet in tune, it cant be beat. If you start doing more than that, you run the risk of breakdown in your muscles. And if you are focusing on a weight program as well, you are only going to make it twice as hard to maintain that muscle mass. If you plan to bulk a little after your done cutting, it will make your job a lot easier.
 
hehe I used to be the fitness newbie next door who thought the treadmill or bike read out of calories were accurate. hahahah

hilarious

good ol' days!
 
cardio is best used to lose additonal cals...i wood start with a proper wts program and food diet and when fat loss stalls than i wood add in cardio...if u start with 4 wts sessions, a perfect diet and 4 cardio sessions a week and fat loss stalls, wat do u do then? adding more wood be too much with decreases cals and u also coodn't recover in time...it's always better to be always losing fat than drop some, nothing, drop some etc
 
Joey007 said:
hehe I used to be the fitness newbie next door who thought the treadmill or bike read out of calories were accurate. hahahah

hilarious

good ol' days!
Click to expand...

same here. I remember one time in 5th grade I kept running on the jogger until it said 1000 calories. It took about 3 hours.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top